A Grosse Pointe Fourth of July

I don't even know where to start when talking about this year's 4th. I guess I'll start with the beginning: 4:45 AM. I got up and cooked the pancakes and sausage for our branch's pancake breakfast. Don't feel sorry for me; I chose to do it this way, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, flipping mountains of pancakes in the quiet of the morning. Seriously, I did like it for some reason. About 5:30 I noticed my neighbor leave for about 10 minutes and come back. Weird, I thought. By 7, the food and kids were packed into the car, along with things for our afternoon barbecue, and I drove a mile and a half to Pier Park to reserve our barbecue and picnic table. I lugged the kids and a wagon full of supplies all the way around the park, only to find that every single table and barbecue was already reserved, including some clearings with no tables or barbecues. Man, how early did I need to go? I guess I should have given my tablecloths to my neighbor, who had gotten one of the last spots. Apparently the line was already 15 people long at 5AM (when the park opens). Sheesh.

I'll try to shorten the story from here. The pancake breakfast was pretty much a success. I didn't buy enough sausage, but I was going easy on the meat after the last potluck. After sky-high stress levels during the day, while I wondered what we were going to do for our barbecue with no barbecue, our picnic turned out all right. We had invited three residents and their families from Clayton's program. They all navigated the incredibly large crowds and picnicked with us. It wasn't ideal, but it was fun and the food was good. A regatta was going on, and I always find it relaxing to look out over Lake St. Clair at the sailboats and yachts.

Here are a few pics from the picnic. Don't mind the men with food in their mouths.

Earlier in the day I bought firecracker popsicles at the park for my kids, thinking I was the nicest mom in the world.

It ended in a massive tantrum after Luke threw both popsicles out of the bike trailer when he discovered blue dripping onto his clothes. I don't usually document tantrums, but this was too funny (and sad) with blue everywhere.


I just love this picture. It's a crazy look, but I love the big smile.

The day ended with sparklers.

Luke wasn't into it.

We tried to keep the kids up for fireworks, but the little tikes crashed just before dark. Clay and I watched them through the trees from our front porch and sighed a big sigh of relief that this wasn't our worst barbecue ever. That award is reserved for one of our past barbecues, although that's another story for another time. We are just thankful to be from two great countries which each bring us so many blessings.